The
following quoted text was posted by Gary Coffman, KE4ZV, in general response
to those who claim that, along with no real need to restructure amatuer
radio licensing at the present time,

some
in amateur radio do not readily or easily share information, or seemingly
demand a "higher level" of understanding than is really necessary or needed
for licensing in amateur radio.

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"I think anyone who reviews my posts on these
newsgroups will be forced to concede that I share technical information
just about as freely as is humanly possible to do."

"While I have done engineering level work for
the past 35 years, I was not trained as an engineer. I was trained as a
nuclear physicist. I had to learn electrical engineering the same way I'd
expect any amateur to learn it, from books, the technical press, and hands-on
experience."

"And of course almost all of this information
is available to anyone who takes even a few moments to try to educate himself."

"I suppose the [Georgia] Tech library would have
most of the books I reference, though I haven't had a student ID over there
for the last 30 years and couldn't say first hand. All of my books were
purchased the same way you could purchase them. My local Barnes and Noble
has most of them, or you can always get them through amazon.com. And there
are a large number of resources on the web, notably manufacturer data sheets
and application notes for most any device an amateur might encounter. I've
found the time to search them out and study them. ...."

"Whose fault is it that you don't understand?
I'd suggest you look in the mirror to see. Anyone can obtain the
books and study them. There are plenty available, couched in terms all
the way from rank beginner to expert. You only have to put forth a little
effort to become acquainted with the material. It isn't beyond the capabilities
of anyone with moderate intelligence and the ability to read and do some
relatively simple math. And there are those of us quite willing to
help, to answer questions, to explain unclear points, etc. You have only
to ask. The benefits to be gained from this knowledge are incredible, frankly
revolutionary."

"If you'll recall, I posted a bibliography of
nine fundamental texts when we were discussing the Shannon relation and
its relevance to ... absurd claims about Morse Code."

"It still stuns me that you can show such pride
in your ignorance, and assume that others take the same pride in deliberately
remaining ignorant of the most fundamental basis of communications. Shannon's
work totally revolutionized how competent people think about communications
systems and information storage systems, and those who have followed him
have developed a *large* body of work which impacts virtually every aspect
of modern communications systems and information storage systems. If you
think a blurb in the ITT handbook tells you all you need to know to be
even marginally competent, or have even the most rudimentary ability to
comment intelligently on what information theory tells us about communications
techniques, you are sadly mistaken."

"You say I've called you a Luddite, and I must
say that the term fits you and others here of your stripe very well. You
glorify hand labor and vilify superior machine techniques. That is exactly
what Ned Lud did. His followers tried to hold back progress and *force*
featherbedding in archaic and inefficient manual technique; so do you.
Ned Lud and his followers couldn't win in a free and open competitive marketplace,
they had to invoke force to try to hold back progress to preserve their
manual labor jobs. They failed, and ultimately so will you and your followers."

"The industrial revolution that Ned Lud and his
followers fought against has brought prosperity to more people than any
other thing in the history of the world because it embodies the idea that
we should *work smart rather than hard*. We should use the power of the
machine to multiply our physical capabilities. The information age has
taken that a step further, allowing us to multiply the power of our minds
in ways we couldn't even imagine 50 years ago. Shannon and his followers
revolutionized the world in ways that no modern day Ned Lud can resist
for long."

"Amateur radio is at a crossroads. It can decline
to the status of a quaint handicraft, a preservation society for archaic
manual technique, or it can boldly go forth into the 21st century as a
leader of the communications revolution. We can do that because the computer
gives us the power to multiply our capabilities far beyond manual methods,
and information theory is the roadmap which shows us how. That wasn't possible
even 25 years ago, but it is today. We can do this as amateurs because
the tools needed to do so are as easily within our reach as they are of
any corporate drone working in his cubicle. Software development is the
ultimate cottage industry, and our on the air testing capability exceeds
that of any bench test industry can muster. But we must shake off
old attitudes and prejudices. We must eagerly accept new ways. And we must
reform the regulatory environment to foster the sorts of innovation we
can achieve."

"Morse code speed testing serves as a rallying
point for the forces of reaction, for the Ned Luds among us. It casts a
psychological pall across amateur radio, loudly proclaiming that we are
a quaint backwater determined to cling to our archaic ways while the communications
revolution sweeps past us and makes us more and more irrelevant. That image
hurts us in regard to spectrum retention, especially our vulnerable VHF/UHF
allocations, even though Morse speed testing isn't required there. Our
licensing structure says VHF/UHF spectrum isn't valuable to us. It is a throwaway we give to the unwashed who aren't
"real" amateurs because they don't know Morse Code. Our licensing structure
proclaims that the only spectrum amateur radio considers of real value
is that spectrum we reserve exclusively for the Extra class. That is such
an absurd image that it makes *all* of us look bad in the eyes of those
competent to evaluate the real value of spectrum."

"There are other compelling reasons we must reform
and reinvent amateur radio, of course. One of the most pressing is the
demographic crisis we face. If present demographic trends continue, in
10 years half our Generals will be dead, and we aren't replacing them at
a rate which will make up the shortfall. Our Advanced class doesn't have
much better demographics."

"Over the last 30 years, amateur radio has become
sharply divided into two separate and distinct cultures, one existing above
30 MHz and one existing below 30 MHz, artificially divided by Morse speed
testing. This does not bode well for the amateur radio service. We are
running a very grave risk of losing many of our important traditions and
values because we cling to this one archaic and divisive Morse speed testing
ritual as the highest aspiration of an amateur. Anyone with a scrap of
intelligence sees that as not only an absurdity, but as a foolish and dangerous
absurdity as well. It is a wedge which has split amateur radio apart, for
no good reason except the beliefs of the luddites among us."

"Those who wish to use Morse Code needn't abandon
it in the process of reform. Amateur radio has a big tent, there is room
for all. But the Morse speed testing must go, because it is the divisive
wedge which cuts us off from our future, and may well cost us all that
we value as amateurs. I think that many of our traditions are of great
value, but those who hold them most strongly will soon be gone as the age
of mortality and the average age of those holding our traditions merge.
We must break the divisive barrier between the two cultures so that they
can blend and absorb our key values, or the only values which
will be left will be those created by the young "shack on a belt" types
who will remain. (Some of their values are good too, but our older HF amateurs
have values which need to be passed down as well. That won't happen unless
we can knit back together the two cultures.)"

"Dr. Tom Clark talked about this at length at
the TAPR dinner at Dayton last year. It is well worthwhile to listen to
that talk via the TAPR Real Audio server. He has all the facts, figures,
graphs, and charts which show this cultural divide, and he has intelligent
things to say about the dangers of losing some of our most valuable traditions
and values if we don't find a way to bridge this divide. We can't just
continue on the way we have been for the last 30 years if we hope for amateur
radio to have a healthy future."